MEDELLIN, Colombia (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Colombia Thursday with a group of 10 US legislators for talks set to focus on a contentious free trade pact.
The United States also wants to express "support for one of our strongest allies" in the region, Rice told reporters during her flight to Medellin from Davos, Switzerland where she attended the opening of the World Economic Forum.
"The United States needs to be seen as a reliable partner for the countries that are delivering for their people in Latin America and that are good friends of the United States," Rice said.
Rice will meet Friday with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe as well as with a group of demobilized Colombian right-wing paramilitary fighters during her brief visit to Medellin, local officials said.
The meeting with the former fighters will take place Friday in a science and technology park in Medellin, city official Jorge Gaviria told AFP.
According to local radio comments by Medellin Mayor Alonso Salazar, Rice requested the meeting in the once-notorious drug trafficking center as part of efforts by the White House to convince the US Congress to pass the US-Colombian free trade agreement (FTA).
Democrats in the US Congress have resisted the treaty, accusing Uribe's government of tolerating crimes and human rights abuses by right-wing paramilitary groups.
US-based Human Rights Watch director Jose Miguel Vivanco recently called on Rice to use the US-Colombian FTA "as leverage to press Colombia's government to effectively confront impunity and break the paramilitaries' power."
Rice said she would raise the issue in her meeting, but also stressed that Uribe had made some "progress."
"Every time we talk with the Uribe government or their representatives, we talk about human rights and the need to continue to improve the human rights record in Colombia," she told reporters.
"This is a government that has been straightforward about the need for Colombia to address those issues. They have been trying to address them," she added.
Salazar said on Radio Caracol that Friday's meeting would show Rice and the US lawmakers "the transformation" of Medellin, once considered a major hub for illegal narcotics and one of the world's most dangerous cities.
"We hope that every North American who arrives in our city will leave convinced that we need the FTA to follow the road of progress," he said.
Since 2003 more than 4,000 right-wing paramilitary fighters and over 700 leftist rebels have laid down their arms in Medellin, according to official figures.
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